


Tater Tots

by KitkatAndCocoa



Category: Unidentified Fandom
Genre: He died by tiger, Other, There was a dog named Cherry, heheh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25268218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitkatAndCocoa/pseuds/KitkatAndCocoa
Summary: A tiger escapes from one of its crates through a security stop in an airport.This tiger is very friendly to humans.Poor Thomas. Now you have to care for TWO cats.
Relationships: n/a





	Tater Tots

A plane flying out from Asia landed at the US airport and was checked by the government border patrol. They found animal poachers aboard the aircraft, along with mostly dead rare creatures. However, there was one living animal on board. A tiger. A beautiful apex predator that had been drugged into sleeping over the ride to the US. However, stuck in a stuffy crate, it had leapt out and escaped the airport and fled into the new world before anyone could catch it. 

This was how a rare big cat came to be slinking around a neighborhood alone, yellow eyes scanning her new environment. She was by a large area filled with duplexes, and she felt a strange tugging towards a white one with a large bush in the front. There was a faint smell of food coming from it, and she padded over into the backyard, where a small bowl of cat food sat on the back porch. Her eyes gleamed, and she sniffed it. Meanwhile, Thomas was cleaning up his kitchen, sweeping it up and not looking out the back glass door. He didn’t notice his calico cat staring out the glass door with her fur standing on end, glaring at the tiger. The tiger simply glanced at the cat, then ate up every kernel in the cat bowl outside. She licked her chops, then turned away, walking over to the underside of the porch, and looking underneath curiously. There were a few chipmunks underneath, and two of them froze in terror, while the other two scrambled in an attempt to escape, even though the gap and the porch wasn’t wide enough for the tiger’s paw to fit. The tiger still tried, stuffing her large fluffy toes under the lip of the beam of wood, but to no avail. All she did was dig a small hole in the side, and make a mess. She huffed, and walked away into the yard nearest to the already explored one. There was one of those small plastic mini-playgrounds with a slide in the backyard, along with a large tree in the center with a small ladder built into the trunk leading upwards. The tiger let out a lazy yawn, and padded over to the playset, sniffing it.  _ Two human cubs have played on this.  _ The tiger thought, then turned away and kept walking. The small bars placed on the tree trunk also smelled like the two human cubs, and she could smell a dog as well. Speaking of a dog, a tiny yapping puppy pacing with a leach around its neck at the tiger. A yelp followed slowly after, and the leash was left torn and a bit of blood left behind. The tiger lay down in a thick shrub, and rested. An hour later, she saw an adult human walk out of the house with the cat food behind it, glancing at the empty cat food bowl and picking it up. “Huh, I guess someone’s cat must have gotten out, and it must’ve been really hungry.” He looked in the glass back door and waved. “Hello, Carmel!” he said in a baby voice. “I’m out here now, and no, you can’t escape. I know what happened the last time you got out.” The calico cat tried to paw at the glass to get out, trying to sniff at the human’s hand.

The tiger yawned for the second time, her thick sharp teeth revealed as her tongue flopped out and curled. She stretched forward, her claws digging into the dirt before she settled down again to watch the human. The human glanced over at the bush she was hiding under because it had moved a bit from her stretching. “Maybe it’s under there,” he muttered. “But it’s probably scared, I shouldn’t bother it.” He went inside through the front door, before coming out a few minutes later with a full bowl of cat food and another with water, setting them down. “Don’t act like you’re jealous, Carmel,” he said through the glass back door. “You got plenty of food and whatnot.” He went back around the house, and soon she heard a strange rattling, growling sound that got louder, before fading away, moving into the strange stone path on the other side of the house before it went away. The sound made the tiger tense a little, since it remembered the sound of planes as well. Then she closed her eyes letting time go by as she rested. Thomas drove to his work of home construction. He idly wondered whose cat had gotten out, and why the neighbor’s dog hadn’t been barking up a storm at him when he came out. That usually happened whenever anyone other than the two kids went outside. He parked in the new parking lot by the house that was being built, pulling on his uniform and going over to the foreman and grabbing his tools. “So what’re we working on today?” he asked.

“We’re planting down the roof and shingles, since according to the forecast, we’re getting snow in a week, and we don’t want to have to clean that up every day once it starts, you know how it gets here,” the foreman said. Thomas tried to steady his breathing. He hated heights so much. And he was always the first one on the roof once they laid it down.

“Sure thing, boss,” he said, smiling and trying to ignore his sense of uneasiness. Meanwhile, Carmel was staring out the back door at the tiger, and had been for a few hours.

The tiger occasionally stared right back, and looked calm and collected. Her fur was groomed nicely, and she was loafing like most house cats would. Carmel eventually stood up and walked away, trying to act like she was in charge as she went into the bathroom, climbing up onto the towels and loafing on there so she didn’t have to see the intruder on her territory. Of course, the tiger got up a while later and investigated more of the food on the back porch. It smelled a little weird, but it tasted okay. So she ate more of it, cleaning the bowl with her large tongue before padding back into the bushes. A few more hours later, Thomas pulled into his garage, feeling his back aching from how much time he had spent hunched over, and he was exhausted from constant paranoia and worry on the roof. He parked and checked the bowl. “Is there a pack of feral cats or something?” he asked with a chuckle as he picked them up and refilled them, putting them back before he went home, finding Carmel on the towels. “What’s up with you right now? You didn’t greet me, you didn’t try an escape attempt, what’s wrong?” he chuckled as he pet her. She happily accepted these pets, meowing at him in a displeased manner when he stopped. “I’m getting you wet food, shush.” When he cracked open the wet food, Carmel came running, staring up at him eagerly as he dished it up and placed it down. “Maybe I can get some reading or writing in before you decide to sit on my keyboard,” he said as he moved into the living room, opening up his laptop and going to the novel he had started writing, trying to figure out where to go from where he was. Meanwhile, the neighbors were freaking out over their missing dog, which had seemed like a pet murder scene. A knock came to Thomas’ door. He got up, annoying Carmel from the disturbance of his lap, but he picked her up so that it was almost like a lap, so she didn’t swat at him. He went to the door and opened it with his spare hand. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked, concerned by their expression.

“H-have you seen our dog Cherry anywhere nearby? We found his leash torn up and him gone. There was a little blood, I’m really worried.” The woman was a mother to two small kids, and a husband who always worked and never was around. She looked a bit pale. 

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t even hear him when I went into the backyard this morning, so I don’t know what happened to him. I hope you find him soon. I can help if you want,” he said, holding Carmel firmly so she didn’t try to take a chance to run to the free outdoors.

“Oh, that would be wonderful. Could you just keep an eye out? Sorry about bothering you, it’s just that the kids are wondering and...” She rambled, looking frazzled. 

“It’s okay, I’ll keep an eye out and let you know if I see him. Hope one of us sees him soon,” he said. “You should probably put up lost posters, maybe someone else will find him.”

“I will, thank you.” The woman left, walking over to the next house. Meanwhile, the tiger was standing and wandering over to the spot where she had started digging under the porch, and started ripping up the dirt. Thomas shut the door so that Carmel would stop trying to escape, not noticing the plight of the chipmunks underneath his porch as he buried his face in her fur, getting a few swats as a reward.

“Stop, I’m trying to show I care about you, fool,” he said, pulling his face away. Now there was a decent hole in the backyard, torn up grass and dirt piling up as the tiger stuck her head into the spot to see the small animals underneath. She still couldn’t fit. She was too large. Thomas went to his little corner of writing, and Carmel snuggled up to his lap, not wanting to see the intruder in her territory as Thomas resumed his writing.

The night went by, and day came once again. But Thomas got an urgent call from his boss, just as he was setting a new bowl of cat food on the back porch. “I’ll be there right away, sir,” he said as he went in through the back door, slamming it shut behind him. But since it was a sliding door, it slipped back a little open. Not enough for Carmel to get out, luckily, but he’d have to probably deal with bugs for a bit. He rushed to his car, leaving his half-eaten plate of pancakes and bacon on the table as he drove off. The tiger, nicknamed Tater from hearing the two cubs next door say it all the time when they wanted dinner, sniffed the air and rumbled in interest. She stood, emerging from the bushes and padding over to the front porch. Carmel’s hackles raised, and she hissed at her angrily, perched in the small opening of the sliding door. However, Tater would have none of this, and let out a small chuff to make the small inferior cat move. She lifted one large paw, and used her claws to pry open the back door. Carmel backed away slowly, fur standing on end and back raised as she hopped away like most spooked housecats, giving Tater space as she opened the back door. The female tigress loped into the house, following the scent of the food left on the table. She drooled a little, and used her upper body to grab the edge of the table and take the plate off the surface and down to the floor. It shattered, and she jolted, startled. Carmel peered around the corner, pupils wide as they stared at Tater and the broken plate, along with the bacon and pancakes that were lying by the broken chunks. The tiger avoided the inedible pieces of plate and ate up the bacon first, leaving a little for Carmel. Unknown to some, tigers would sometimes share their kill with other tigers, and Tater saw Carmel as a possible friend. Carmel slowly walked over, sniffing at Tater carefully, keeping an eye on her as she hunched over to eat some of the leftover bacon.

After finishing, Tater hopped up onto the couch to lounge. She let out a big tiger sigh, and closed her yellow eyes. Carmel went to the arm of the couch and lay down on it, loafing next to Tater’s tail. A few hours later, Thomas returned, coming into the door to be greeted by Carmel. He smiled wearily, picking her up. “Why, hello, Carmel, how was yo-” He froze as he saw something on his couch. “Uhhh,” he started, trying to stay calm. He failed. “AAAAAAAAA!” He set down Carmel a little roughly, stumbling down to the kitchen floor, managing to shut up his screaming. Tater had been watching him when he entered, and when he started screaming, she had jumped off the couch and slunk down low nervously. Her ears flicked low, and she poofed out a little. She didn’t make a sound. While he had managed to stop his screaming, he had started rambling incoherently, curling up and hating himself. Why didn’t he get up and try to run? He was so dead. How did a tiger get into his house? Of course, all his thoughts were jumbled together, so it was more like  _ lkdsajgapevianeofiac _ . Tater slowly padded carefully over to Thomas, wary but friendly. She was one of the tigers raised by a human family in Asia, and knew humans were usually okay. Except for those poachers. They had caught her off guard. She sniffed him, her face a foot away from him. Thomas flinched away a little. “Pleasedon’teatme pleasedon’teatme,” he started muttering over and over again, like asking nicely would stop a hungry tiger from tearing his face off.

Tater realized she was making it worse, and changed her tactics. She went over to his side and flopped down like a house cat would, rubbing her face against his leg. Thomas barely resisted the urge to use that leg for something other than being still, his breathing starting to slow down slightly. He was still kinda freaking out, since, you know, a  _ tiger was in his house _ , but he wasn’t screaming any more, and his thoughts worked, so that was a plus. “Nice tiger, it’s okay,” he said, hesitantly reaching out and stroking at her fur. The tiger made a humming sound, then a “MRah,” of happiness. Yes, this human knew how to scratch. She would keep this human. Thomas slowly sat up criss-cross applesauce, and spread his pets around her body, scritching her ears with one hand as he ran his other one down her fur. Tater was in big cat heaven, and wasn’t able to purr, but she did make little mowls of pleasure. Thomas chuckled. “Big heckin’ chonker, that’s what you are,” he muttered as he continued to pet and scratch her. She ended up leaning into his hands, and he could feel the massive muscles underneath the black and orange fur. “Good thing you’re friendly, I bet if you were human you could bench press me,” he mumbled as he intensified the scratches and pets. After a few minutes he tried to pull away so he could make himself some dinner, standing up and gently set her head on the ground as he went to his fridge to choose what he’d cook up. He was a little biased towards steak today, even though he didn’t really like cooking it much. Tater stood up and padded into the middle of the living room, laying down heavily on the carpet. She was a lazy tiger. Carmel went over to Tater and hopped up onto her, laying down on her side as Thomas grabbed a big slab of meat and started to prepare it for eating, though he figured that the tiger would have a thing to say about who got what to eat. So he started up some ramen as well for himself.

Tater yawned widely, and stretching her entire body across the carpet. Thomas finished up the steak, cutting it in half and putting one half of it on the ground for the tiger. “What should I call you?” he asked.  _ Tater _ . The tiger thought, but she clearly couldn’t convey this fact. “Hmmm… with how big and floofy you are, you look kinda like a tater tot,” he muttered. “How does Tater sound?” he asked, feeling like it was the right choice for some reason. Her ear twitched at the sound of the name, signaling that she heard. “All right, Tater, you can have some steak if you want,” he offered, moving and setting down a plate with half of the steak down in front of her. The tigress immediately perked up, turning and sniffing the delicious morsel. She then opened her mouth, full of sharp and thick teeth, and biting into the juicy steak. Thomas tried to ignore how close the teeth had been to his leg, which probably had a similar amount of meat. He idly wondered what human flesh tasted like, before he sat down and started piling seasoning (salt and pepper counts, right?) on his steak so it had more of a flavor. 

Of course, Tater made no move to eat his leg off, and finished her food. She licked her chops, seeming satisfied, then got up, padding over to one of the chairs and pulling it out a bit sideways with a paw. Thomas chuckled. “Whatcha gonna do, Tater?” he asked, stopping his eating to watch her curiously. Then she hopped  _ onto  _ the chair, the wood creaking a little under her weight but keeping steady. She sat down and stared at him. Thomas laughed. “Oh boy, you are a pretty great cat,” he said, turning to look at Carmel. “Don’t worry, you’re a good one too,” he said. He looked at Tater. “Now, just so you know the rules, no going on the table. I’ll get my squirt bottle if you do that, and the table might break under your weight.” Tater just stared at him, watching his movements curiously. She seemed to just like being  _ there _ . “Thank you,” he said, finishing his steak, before standing up and picking up his plate and utensils, then he grabbed Tater’s plate from the ground, and put them in the dishwasher. After that, he went to the fridge and grabbed a gallon of milk, pouring himself a glass and drinking it up quickly, before refilling the glass, setting it on the table, and turning around to put the gallon away. Tater shifted her hunches, but otherwise didn’t move. She seemed content sitting there like a human. “Are you a human in a tiger’s body?” he asked, offering his hand for her to sniff as he drank more milk. Her yellow eyes locked onto his hand, the individual fleshy fingers fascinating her immediately as she suddenly licked it. Gently, like he was a cub. Thomas chuckled a little. “Ack, that tickles,” he murmured in a slightly high-pitched voice, letting her lick it before he moved and ran his hand down the top of her head. 

She chuffed happily, leaning her huge head into his hand. He could feel the soft fur, and the strong shape of her snout. It was cute how her nose was a pretty shade of pink. He finished up his milk, setting the glass down gently, before slowly moving his hand, which had a bit of milk that had spilled on it, towards her lips. She sniffed it and licked it off him, then jumped off the chair, as if she knew he was done. She noticed Carmel, and sniffed at the little house cat curiously. The cat stiffened a little, but let Tater sniff, before sniffing back. Then she rubbed her head underneath the tiger’s chin. This made Tater happy, and she rubbed back, grooming Carmel a little. Not too much, since Tater’s tongue was huge and her mouth was large enough to be threatening. “Awww,” Thomas chuckled, putting his cup away in the dishwasher and squatting down, watching them happily. “I’m glad you’re getting along,” he said. A lot of things could have gone wrong. Eventually, Tater went over and lay on the couch again, yawning. “Well, I had a rough day at work today, so I’m probably just gonna shower and go to bed, okay?” he said to the cats, before going into the bathroom and taking off his clothes, turning on the shower and climbing in. The sound of water made Tater perk up, and jump happily off the couch. She trotted over to the bathroom where the sound was coming from, and nudged the door. Thomas was too busy enjoying the nice warmth of the water to notice the creaking of the door opening, closing his eyes and relaxing. Suddenly the curtain moved, and Tater, in all her orange, black, and white furred muscle glory jumped into the tub. “ACK!” Thomas exclaimed, stumbling backwards and almost slipping on the slick tub floor. “Okay, there is a tiger in my shower. This is  _ fine _ , nothing unusual about this, nope.” He took a few calming breaths. Tater looked blissfully happy, feeling the water rain down on her pleasantly. Her eyes closed and she sat down, tail whapping up and down. Thomas chuckled a little. “Um… Tater. This was supposed to be my shower. Can you give me like five minutes so I can clean up before you use up all the hot water?” he asked. Tater didn’t move. She was too happy, and she didn’t understand most human words. Thomas slowly moved so he was next to her, squeezing against the wall. “I’m gonna borrow this water so I can wash my hair for a second,” he said, scratching Tater’s ear so she wouldn’t be too upset by him using up some of the water as he started to wash his hair. The tiger didn’t seem to mind, liking the scratches in small intervals. He finished washing his hair and squeezed out past her. Unfortunately, he bumped into his body wash bottle, causing it to fall loudly at Tater’s feet.

She jolted a little, scrambling, then fled the tub, jumping out and shaking herself, making everything in the bathroom be sprayed with water droplets. Thomas poked his head out of the shower curtain. “I’m sorry, you okay?” he asked, glancing at the now somewhat soaked towels. Tater made a chuffing sound, since she was only momentarily spooked, and trotted all sopping wet into the hallway. “That’s gonna be fun to clean up,” he muttered as he finished up his shower. Carmel popped her head around the corner, looking up at Tater, before flinching away as the water droplets fell near her, turning and running away. Tater chuffed in amusement, teasing Carmel by coming closer. Carmel made herself cornered, before scrambling up a cat tree, ears turned backwards and glaring at the wet mess Tater currently was. The shower turned off and Thomas dried himself off as well as he could with one of the drier towels, before pulling on a pair of sweatpants and grabbing another fairly dry towel and stalking after Tater. She heard him coming, and glanced over, sitting down and tilting her head curiously. Thomas walked over towards her with the towel, before placing it on her back. “It’s okay,” he said to her soothingly, trying to keep her from freaking out like Carmel did with towels. Tater stared at him, confused, then shook off the towel. He put the towel back on her, starting to ruffle her fur in order to dry her off.

Tater tried to move away, or more like dragged Thomas with her, since she was much stronger than a human. She slinked away from the towel’s touch. Thomas grumbled a little, moving the towel so that he was drying off her head, getting it over with as quickly as possible. Tater made a muffled sound of protest, then nabbed the edge of the towel with her teeth and took off. “Noooo,” Thomas whined, chasing after her with a little chuckle. It’d be funnier if she weren’t soaking everything she was near. Tater liked this game. She trotted in the kitchen and out, around the house, and back into the living room. She stayed just out of Thomas’ reach. He finally stopped, letting out a sigh. “Please, Tater?” he asked, standing in the kitchen. “Can you please come over here and let me dry you off?” Tater didn’t speak human. So she just continued what she was doing. Thomas waited until she had poked her head around a corner to see him to grab the edge of the towel, wrapping it around his arm as he pulled against her. She made a playful chuffing sound, then gave up, as if he won the game finally. Thomas almost fell backwards from her letting go, catching himself before he placed the towel on her back half, ruffling up her fur more. Once he was done, she shook herself a little, and looked at Thomas like,  _ what now?  _ Thomas put away the towel, and moved his hands so he was smoothing her fur. “It’s okay, let’s just get your fur back into place,” he murmured, kneeling down so he was more on her level. It was sticking out in all directions like a tussle of orange and black ocean waves, and her cheek fur was dishevelled too. He worked slowly to get it back into place, taking about 5 minutes. “There we go, Tater,” he smiled at her, fluffing her cheek fur back into place.

She seemed to beam at him, those yellow eyes intelligent and clear. She then stood up and rubbed against Thomas before going back into the living room. Her rubbing against him almost made him lose his balance, and he almost fell backwards, before he climbed to his feet and went into the living room as well, sitting in his usual corner spot as he watched Tater. The tiger didn’t do much besides groom herself and lay on the couch. Carmel stared at her distrustfully, as if she would suddenly become soaked again and chase her. Thomas chuckled a little, taking out his laptop and writing a bit, before he closed it and went to bed, curling up on it and trying to force himself to fall asleep with pure willpower. Like usual, it didn’t really work. It took him about an hour or two to fall asleep. Another hour later, Tater padded in and sniffed at the side of the bed. She then carefully hopped up onto the top, causing the entire mattress to shudder as she lay down directly next to Thomas with her paws out and face laying in between her front legs. Carmel joined them, laying on the other side and nuzzling into his back. 

Thomas opened his eyes to a wall of black and orange fur, stiffening a little before he relaxed. He moved a hand and ran it down Tater’s side softly, smiling at how adorable she looked, despite being double his weight and probably taking them over the safe weight limit for a bed mattress. She was a large wild cat that had come out of nowhere. It was strange, but she was friendly, and that seemed to count for something. He slowly sat up and crawled over her to get off of the bed, feeling it rise up as he moved, then went up a bit as he fully went up, but it was still lower than usual because of the tiger on it. He let out a sigh of relief, scratching at Tater’s back as he felt glad that it was a Saturday, meaning no going to work. Tater opened her eyes sleepily, looking over at Thomas curiously. She rose and stretched, but going up in the air as she yawned. Thomas chuckled, watching her stretch. “You’re just a big cat,” he muttered, stiffening as he heard his phone buzz. He picked it up. “Great, some people are coming over.” He glanced at Tater. “How am I going to hide you?” Tater blinked at him innocently. She was unaware of his dilemma. “All right, they’re coming after lunch, so let’s feed you two,” he said, going into the kitchen and pouring out most of his cat food into two bowls, making a note to buy more soon. 

  
  
  
  



End file.
